Re: Emergency strike fund already gone, Jan. 20.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board is to decide soon on whether Ottawa's public transit system is "essential" and thus worthy of special protections from work stoppages in labour disputes.

I suggest that the service is really two systems, one essential and the other not. The all-day routes are designed to serve the full-range of trips for what is mostly a car-free clientele. The transit industry, itself, calls these patrons "transit-captive."

The other system is the rush-hour-only express-bus routes designed primarily for those working downtown and living on "the fringe." These are people who mostly have access to cars and to ride-share opportunities through their workplaces. They rarely use transit for other kinds of trips. The transit industry called them "transit-choice."

Mr. Mercier and Council,

So is this "scheduling" problem, your strike-line-in-the-sand, really worth "up to $3.5 million a year"? Or is it the $6 million Susan Sherring so dutifully suggests for you today... or is this all just a smoke screen for far deeper problems you'd rather the public didn't know? By your actions it certainly seems more important to you than the hundreds of millions wasted by management in recent years, let alone the further hundreds of millions you have cost citizens since your labour management skills thrust this strike on us.

Because of the grief and expense you are causing me, and much of the rest of the city, I feel entitled to ask: show me the details. Prove to me that what seems like "penny wisdom" is more important than all the "pound foolishness" so apparent at Ottawa's transit brain trust. For starters:

If your express bus fare is $4.00 cash, but most express
bus users buy a pass, it works out like this:

Monthly express pass= $101.00

Average twenty round trips per month = 40 rides per month.

$101.00/40 = $2.53 cost to the user per ride.

BUT - remember that your average express route recovers
no more than 40% of its operating costs at the farebox.

SO - $2.53/.40 = $6.31 total cost per ride to place a bum
on an express bus seat.

Or, if you are not lucky, a place to stand on said bus*.
(* - See below)

So, the taxpayer is footing a bill of $6.31 - $2.53 = $3.78
for every person taking an express bus.

Now, let's do the math for the "Transit Captives," those
who cannot afford an express fare, and are "forced" to use
slow, clunky routes like the #95, #96, # 101, etc.

Monthly regular pass= $81.00

Average twenty round trips per month = 40 rides per month.

$81.00/40 = $2.03 cost to the user per ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm9P4MCx1A0
A Simple Plan is a collection of short videos explaining a number of Transport 2000 ideas on how to get Ottawa's Light Rail system working sooner, more effectively and for less money. Source: Dunrobin Castle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD6CdoQWpvM
Ottawa Light Rail Driver Interview Opinions on how to build and run Light Rail on existng Railway Tracks from a former O-Train Driver (retired).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxoA3IDGt8
Use The Inter-City "P.O.W." Rail Bridge This video explains why we should be using the "UNUSED" Prince of Wales Railway Bridge that connects downtown Ottawa to downtown Gatuneau (Hull). Source: Dunrobin Castle. www.dunrobincastle.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp7zqbW5JJs

Councillor Clive Doucet and Councillor Christine Leadman presented a plan this morning for light rail. Totalling $5.2B (vs staff proposals costing more than $7B), the plan includes LRT on Carling, and extending the O-Train to Gatineau, and south to Leitrim.
see:
http://www.clivedoucet.com/Rail%20Now/rail_now.htm

I submitted the following to City Council today, Oct. 29, 2008

Mr. Mayor and Councillors:

City staff’s “Scenario 3” of “Option 4” involves, once again,
shutting down the O-Train diesel light rail system, and rebuilding
the line for double track electric light rail.

Before Council approves this, they should seriously consider
how OC Transpo operations would, and should, be affected by
adding so much capacity in the north-south direction.

Specifically, how will this vast investment be utilized, so as
to get the best return on our taxpayers' dollars?

Some people say, that once we spend all that money double
tracking the rock cut, twinning the Dow's Lake tunnel, and the
bridges, etc., on the O-Train line, then we would shift the bulk of
the S.E. Transitway bus traffic coming in to downtown from the
south end, onto the O-Train line.

This is because ELRT will drastically reduce the per-passenger